The Center for Disease Control publishes guidelines on the proper handling and storage of human milk as adopted from the 2004 Clinical Protocol #8: Human Milk Storage Information for Home Use for Healthy Full Term Infants published by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. For instance, breastmilk may be kept at room temperature (up to 77F) for 6-8 hours, in an insulated cooler bag at less than 39F for up to 24 hours, in a refrigerator at less than 39F for up to 5 days. If frozen, at 5F or less, up to 2 weeks, if at 0F or less, for 3-6 months, or if −4F or less, 6-12 months.
However, after pumping breastmilk and writing the time and date of filling the container, there is no easy way to track time, much less the temperature of the container and its contents.
Other types of food have other published guidelines for cooled storage, such as eggs (4-5 weeks at 39F or below), hamburger meat (1-2 days at 39F or below, or 3-4 months at 0F or below), etc. as published by the Food and Drug Administration and the Food Safety website.
Accordingly, there is believed to be a need to track storage conditions of materials needing time and/or temperature tracked with improved technology.